Sohar Schriften aus dem Buch des Glanzes

The book "Zohar" (Hebrew for "Splendor"), which was written down in Castile at the end of the 13th century, was early on regarded as an authoritative and sacred main work of Kabbalah. The work, composed primarily in Aramaic and partially in Hebrew, contains mainly homiletic meditations, narratives about the Tannaitic scholar Shim'on bar Yo'ai, the supposed author of the Zohar, as well as dialogues among his circle of students. The Sefirot symbolism described with sexual imagery, the Kabbalistic justification of the commandments, a mystical doctrine of the soul, and the significance of the names of God have all found their classic expression here. From the 23 volumes of the Aramaic-Hebrew edition of the Zohar, the preface and the "Book of Concealment" are selected, in which the first six chapters of the Book of Genesis are meticulously examined according to their fourfold meaning - literal, allegorical, homiletic, and esoteric.